British bill of rights to protect troops

Measures to safeguard British troops serving abroad from legal actions and stronger protection for freedom of expression will appear in the draft British bill of rights to be published ‘soon’, the lord chancellor has indicated.

Michael Gove (pictured) told a House of Lords committee that the draft bill will not ‘derogate absolutely’ from any European Convention rights. ‘Rather, it may be that we emphasise one right over another.’

Meanwhile, the prime minister indicated that the bill would establish a body along the lines of Germany’s constitutional court with the power to overturn EU statutes in the UK.

Gove told the Lords EU sub-committee on justice that the bill’s purpose would be to win public support for the concept of human rights. It was a ‘source of regret’ that human rights are ‘seen as something done to British courts as a foreign intervention’.